The Excelsior Diamond

The excelsior diamond was discovered in Jagersfontein mine (Africa) on
30th June 1893. Originally, it weighed 971.75 carats (194.2g).

Excelsior Rough

It was discovered when a worker saw the
stone while loading a truck. Worker hid the stone from his supervisors
and directly delivered the stone to his manager, who later rewarded him.

Original shape of this crystal was quite
unusual. It was flat on one side and had peak on the other side. Due to
this characteristic it got its name meaning "higher".

The stone had the peculiar features of Jagersfontein mine diamonds. Though having various internal black
spots, it was of blue-white color and was rated to be of very fine gem
quality.

Cutting of the Diamond

Since, this crystal was of huge size so
it could have had posed difficulty in finding a suitable buyer. Hence, it was
decided to cleave it into smaller pieces. So, it will be
appropriate to say that for owner of this diamond, monetary value
mattered more than its historical significance.

The responsibility of cutting this stone
was entrusted with Asscher Diamond Company of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The cutting process resulted in 21 diamonds from this huge stone. The three largest stone weighed 158, 147
and 130 carats respectively. The smaller one’s ranged from 70 carats to
less than 1 carat.

The total weight of 21 gems resulted in
373.75 carats, leading to total loss of 63%. Due to this, cutting of
this huge stone in this manner can be considered as the worst decision
of the diamond cutting history.

These gems were sold separately. Some
were bought by Tiffany and Company. De Beers displayed one of the
marquise shaped diamond at the 1939 world’s fair in New York.

Excelsior set in Bracelet

Excelsior-I (one of the 21 pieces) - weighing 69.68 carats - was the most
publicly noticed diamond amongst all. It is believed to have changed
many hands. Finally, it settled with Robert Mouawad in 1996 for
$2,642,000 who set it in a bracelet.

I hope you'll not mind sharing this on Twitter, Facebook and with everyone else :)

Feel free to share if something is in your mind and want it to be covered on this site.

My Newsletter

Did you liked this article? Sign-up my FREE weekly newsletter and I'll send you more awesome new additions on this website along with latest jewelry happenings around the world, and download my Jewelry Design Album for FREE!

E-mail Address

First Name (optional)

Don't worry — your e-mail address is totally secure.
I promise to use it only to send you Diamond Jewelry Pedia Newsletter.